Sequentially Ever After: Winners’ Circle

This past weekend the first iFanboy comic creation contest came to a close. You buried me in submissions. I had the ridiculously heartbreaking task of choosing a single winner in either category from a heap of deserving words and images. I read every single entry at least twice. I agonized, because the vast majority of you are annoyingly talented. It was not unlike being named Minister of Kitten Drownings for three days. Couldn’t even delete any of them. They’re on an external hard drive. I wish I could showcase all of the entries here, but we got so many of them, it’s just not possible. That said, we’ve set up a thread on the forums where you can share your work and workshop a bit. If you have your project hosted elsewhere, you can also link in the comments. We’ll be doing this again, so I hope everyone who participated joins in for future challenges. Prizes are cool, but as anyone who finished and submitted a project knows, it’s a damn good feeling in itself.

A deceptively simple adaptation, artfully told. I really liked the blank word balloon idea, as it’s an element specific to comics. Many submissions told amazing stories, but some were either written as films or felt like films shoehorned into a comic template.

If I had any concern with this one, it has to do with the pacing of dialogue. Some panels include multiple speakers and background action. I actually took a few minutes to sketch out a page to see if it was feasible. If the artist knows how to prioritize the scale of those panels, there’s no reason it can’t be done. In any case, Paul seems to have found the right balance here. This has always been a creepy story, but this particular perspective was really haunting. It’s all in the voice.

It really came down to the wire. In his last minute submission e-mail, Tim Hall admitted that the ink was probably still drying on the drafting table. It had been a late night. Judging by the meticulous detail and inking, a long one too. I was really impressed with the entire presentation of this mini comic. There’s a lot of sophisticated visual storytelling on display here. Look at where he breaks the panels. Even the shape of the comic itself changes with the tone of the action. It’s a sinister story made even scarier by the top notch design. That final page blew me away. Eric Wilder wrote a really clever script (not the grand prize winner, but a major contender) and I think Tim went above and beyond on this one, delivering a really smart interpretation. These guys make a great team. I hate to single just one of them out, but this was a really tight race.

Paul submitted an outline and some sample art. I really like his visual style, especially the tones and textures he achieved through digital coloring. The paneled page he included has multiple dimensions so it’s not simply a flat plane. I really liked that level of detail. I’m including the original line work as well. He’s a wonderful illustrator.

Sigrid wrote an awesome script inspired by a Spanish nursery rhyme. This was in tight competition for the writing prize. It’s detailed with very thoughtful panel progression. Though it’s decompressed, it tells a complete story. KC Solano did some dynamic pencils for the first page and integrated an ornate border that hints at the mythological element in the story ahead.

Okay, so the joke will probably make you groan, but it’s executed perfectly. This isn’t so much about the gag though. I just really like the way he structured and presented this story. On the first page we have a countdown in a rigid, if unusual, grid format. Then on the second page–the punchline–we get a nice splash.

SkinInspired by – The DonkeyskinWriter – Jennifer Smith

Whoa. This was too inventive and beautifully written not to share. Some real poetry here. I loved this story a lot in terms of prose and dialogue and I think it has major potential as a comic, but I don’t know if it employed as many visual elements as the above scripts. It’s a minor quibble though.

This is a great collaborative effort. Hudson uses an old moral tale in parallel to a contemporary one and Brandon delivers some beautiful art. It’s a really sweet story. Excellent framing. Isn’t that an awesome tiger?

Since his name is on the masthead and I’ve slept on his air mattress, Josh wasn’t eligible to win any prizes in this challenge. Even still, it gave him an excuse to produce King Pete with two very talented artists. If you’ve read Josh’s Captain America spec “Logue’s Patrol” you ought to recognize the spectacular work of colorist Jordan Boyd. The guy really knows how to light a scene. Josh’s latest collaborator Doug Hills offered the pencils. I absolutely love the background action, and Doug really nailed those facial reactions. I hope you get as big a kick out of King Pete as I do. Aside from writing a great script, Josh once again displays a knack for assembling the perfect team for the project.

Alright. Hope you enjoyed Sequentially Ever After! Remember to check out the other contest entries in the thread on our forums. Thanks to everyone who submitted a project. You told some exceedingly cool stories and I hope to see even more in the future. Really, really proud of you guys!

For anyone who submitted a project, please, please post it to our forum thread. You have no idea how hard it was to narrow down these entries! I really want everyone to have a chance to see the dozens of entertaining projects I had the pleasure to read. Thank you SO much for making this such a huge success!

Oh, wow, thanks, Paul! Considering I came into this thinking, "I’m not sure I have a good enough visual mind to pull off comic book writing," it’s nice to know that I’m on the right track — and I can certainly work on improving my visual inventiveness in the future. Thanks for giving me the push to try my hand at this!

I just clicked on this page two seconds ago, but I’m looking forward to reading all the entries featured here — they all look amazing.

These were absolutely amazing. Stunning, really. I love seeing how others approached the same concepts differently. Some really great work.

Huge thanks to Paul for running this thing. I have to say, you really ignited a passion in me to write. If I ever become famous, I think I’ll have to credit you for starting it all. In the extreme liklihood that I don’t become famous, I still have to credit you with introducing me to something that is truly satisfying.

I posted my script on the forum, so I’d love some constructive criticism. Writing it was a learning experience in itself, but if I could get some feedback on what works and what doesn’t, that would be sweet.

This was a fun project. I feel really accomplished. I posted my entry to the forum and I hope people enjoy it.

DREAM ALERT! I think we should all follow the suggestions of the iFanboy team and collaborate our stories and art together to create an anthology book and get them all published. I would love if the iFanboy crew would assist.

I am very proud of all of you for taking part in this and producing excellent work. I hope to read through as many of these as possible. Thank you to Paul for taking the time (I assume it took a massive amount) to go through these and for organizing the project. I had grandiose plans for my own project (it involve the three blind mice working as government funded assassins), but work (and my severe lack of artistic ability in all its forms) got in the way .

Congratulations to everyone who took part and congratulations to Conor, Josh, and Ron for building a community you can be very proud of.

Hey, this is Paul Allor (the Rat guy). I just looked through all the other entries, and all I can say is wow. Given the extraordinary talent on display, I am truly, truly humbled to have squeaked out a win. It’s also interesting that Paul’s one criticism of my pages pretty much zeroed in on exactly the thing I also wasn’t happy with, and struggled with mightily. But I’ll talk more about that on the forum thread.

Congratulations to everyone! Truly extraordinary work on display here.

I almost forgot to include a shameless plug: like most aspiring comic book writers, I have had great difficulty finding an artist(s) to work with. So if you like my script and you’d be interested in collaborating on one of the many projects I have kicking around on my hard drive, drop me a line at pdallor@hotmail.com!

Hey guys, I just wanted to say I really enjoyed the contest. The work that has come from this is really impressive. Excellent job to all! Thanks Paul, for making this opportunity available. I hope to see more contest in the future.

I posted mine over on the iFanboy thread (Which I’ll be pimping on twitter and facebook tonight). This whole thing just got me super pumped and I will be sitting done tonight to read through the winners here and the others who shared on the iFanboy thread. I would love for this to be a somewhat regular thing and while the prize aspect is a neat incentive, I’d imagine the burden of providing a prize can be annoying and that we would participate even without one.

An anthology collecting the stories of those who want to have them included wouldnt be that difficult to do (Aside from the potential amount of content to be in it? Yeah, that’s a pretty big aside maybe, but still). While I ahvent dealt with ka-blam.com on the creator side (As in submitting a book to be listed in their online store) I have purchased from them and gone over their technical guides a bit and the quality is very good, in my experience, and getting a book in their Print-on-demand system is (seeemingly) as simple as setting up TIF images to the dimensions required and naming them sompetently. Price it reasonably and let the profits go into the iFanboy donation jar. Could easily include full stories, script pages, or notes/artwork with a little intro written by each contributor, maybe. I dont know, just rambling a bit here :3

@chlop, Thanks. Tim’s too modest to mention it, but I’m not. If you want to see more of his drawing skills, you can check out his creator owned title The Book Of Sorrow at http://thebookofsorrow.com you wont be disappointed.

Just got back from holiday to catch this thread. Woop Haven’t had time to post anything but will try to sometime soon and also well up for adding something to an anthology if that ever comes to be.

Will catch up on the thread and the scripts later when things are packed away and less chaotic but for the moment thanks Paul and the ifanboy team for putting this on and reading through the entries. Was loads of fun to take part in, hope you enjoyed your side of the bargain

Incidentally – dunno if it’s of any interest but I used the competition to stress test Pixelmator on the mac. Loved it and have all but uninstalled Photoshop as a result so the competition was a happy double whammy for me.

Just wanted to say that I finally found the time to read through all these entries and it’s really incredible stuff. I’m even more amazed I merited a mention in the face of such stiff competition. And all the artists make me wish I could draw anything more than a stick figure. Wow.